Crisis of leadership

The cartoons speak for themselves from both newspapers as the shouts continue for Golding's head. Suddenly everyone has morality fever now, where were some of these voices on Rights based issues including the discrimination of persons due to sexual orientation and disabilities which don not appear in the current Charter of Rights Proposal which is to replace section 3 of the constitution and what about the deaths of the seven girls who were burnt at Armadale under state care not to mention the countless disturbing murders of younlings recently and missing children?

Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Noted psychologist Leachim Semaj believes Jamaica stands to benefit from the Manatt saga that has plunged the government formed by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) into hot water.

As the calls for the head of Prime Minister Bruce Golding rolled in, Semaj pointed out that Jamaica suffers from a crisis of leadership across all sectors of the Jamaican society. He believes this latest development puts Jamaicans in a position to demand more from their leaders.

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. We need to ride this crisis ... new opportunities are trying to emerge," he said.

Semaj added that this predicament that the government finds itself in should not be viewed as an opportunity to swap one political party for the other. "The stakes are now higher, because we are clearer about what we don't want," the psychologist opined.

He added: "A country gets the quality of leadership it deserves. So we have to blame ourselves. Our being quiet as allowed mediocre leaders to rise to the top."

Barry Chevannes, professor of anthropology and former dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies, agrees that the time is ripe to address the country's lack of effective leadership.

"Every crisis is an opportunity. That's what the definition of a crisis is: that things cannot continue the same way," he said.

However, Chevannes, a noted social scientist, said the country's dearth in effective leadership has not reached crisis proportions. "I'm not sure I would call it a crisis, but there is a problem," he said.

Chevannes argued that Jamaica has leaders at the helm but the capabilities needed to arrest the country's current problems, chiefly crime and corruption, are not being displayed.

"Their leadership is not effective for the moment the country is going through."

On the other hand, Semaj thinks that Jamaica is a country of managers and not leaders. "Absolutely (there is a crisis of leadership). There is a big difference between management and leadership."

Semaj defined leadership as the highest trait of management. "It manifests itself in the ability to get a team to work together for the common good," he said.

He questioned which of Jamaica's political or religious leaders have managed to rally Jamaicans to advance the welfare of the country. "Each one is pursuing their own narrow interest," he said.

He pointed out that there was a the plethora of management course available for study locally, and added, "There are a handful of corporate leaders from time to time that spark our imagination as what leadership is about."

Speak out

Semaj also argued that the nation has failed to place clearly defined demands on its leaders. "We really have to raise the bar and be willing to speak out."

The psychologist thinks Golding squandered the grand opportunity to fill the leadership void that existed in the political arena. Semaj said Golding's servant-leader themed election night and inauguration speeches suggested that the prime minister, the self-styled driver, was on the right track. "But everything went downhill after that," he said.

Chevannes believes the country is in a state similar to the pre-independence rut it was in during the 1930s - an era that gave birth to leaders of note such as Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante. But, "we haven't seen anyone emerging who can take a hold of the crime and corruption".

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com